IRISH CUSTOMERS TO FEEL PAIN OF RICE PRICE INCREASES - The Asia Market on Dublin's Drury Street sells 60 tonnes of it a week. Its owner, Howard Pau, is travelling the world at the moment, speaking to millers and rice dealers, and hoping to keep the prices he buys at under control. In the last year there has been a 140% increase in the price of high-quality Thai rice that he buys. And in the first three months of the year on the main commodities markets, rice futures have gone up by 68%. And while the price of rice on the markets goes up, it also goes up on the shelves, and the shop's margins come down.
Irene Tang, who works at the Asia Market on Drury Street, says that the price increases are 'really terrible'. She said the shortage of grain in Thailand and Australia is playing its part.
Pat McArdle, chief economist with Ulster Bank, says that food prices, in real terms, are still well below were they were in the 1980s, and had actually fallen in recent years.
He said the cost of flour is up 48%, while bread had risen by about 20%.
However, he remains confident that food prices will come down, despite the fact that the strength of the euro against sterling has failed to have any discernible impact yet.
MORNING BRIEF - Credit card company American Express says its profit fell by 6% in the first three months of the year as more cardholders failed to make payments. Like other lenders, AmEx has been writing off more loans as unpaid as borrowers in the United States struggle with rising costs, falling home prices and a less certain job market. But, cardholder spending continues to climb, and strong business abroad has been helping to offset much of it credit problems in the US.
